2013 Weingut Stauss, Riesling, Hipping, Rheinhessen.
The 2013 Weinut Stauss Niersteiner Hipping Riesling is a dry and delicate offering, made by young Christina Stauss, she has done two vintages since taking over the helm at her family’s estate in the Rheinhesen. I got to meet her while she was on a fly away vacation to New Zealand with her boyfriend, with a brief stop over in San Francisco to see relatives. Weingut Stauss has many varietals in the vineyards, including Syrah, but of course the heart and soul of the winery is Riesling, plus they have a few rooms to rent for the country get away for those that want to taste the German farm life first hand. Christina’s other passion is horses and she’s an accomplished horsewoman and along with winemaking, cares for more than a few horses, while her boyfriend is an amateur motorcycle rallyist, preferring his off road experience on two wheels. Christina, who also works for Naked Wines Europe, is excited about her up coming wines and looks to craft wines with more her own personality over the coming years, but I enjoyed her first solo effort, this QbA Hipping Riesling (not labeled as Trocken) is lovely, clean and full of elegant and graceful charm, it shows real promise with bright green apple, peach and soft citrus notes leading the way in this dry style wine. The 2013 Niersteiner Hipping is about 12% and has plenty of acidity, drive and balanced extract, done in all stainless it delivers nice mineral notes, hints of loam, saline and light tropical essences along with that core of fruit, it feels crisp and vivid in the mouth and finishes with just a hint of creamy sweetness and a brisk tangy (sweet and sour) lingers. This lighter style Riesling is an everyday quaffer and should drink nicely for another 3 to 5 years, it should fill out a bit more on the palate with some bottle age and look for some aromatics to develop as well given more time, but this is a solid wine and very pleasing now, best from 2015 to 2020. Weingut Stauss is currently looking to expand to markets worldwide, though sadly has no importer yet in the USA, this is certainly a winery to check out and I hope they find there way to the US market soon.
($N/A No US importer) 88-90 Points, grapelive